Data Driverby David Ramel

Cloud Devs Favor Windows Azure (Survey)

Microsoft has long been trying to get developers to store their data in the Windows Azure cloud, and the effort seems to be paying off. More cloud developers use Windows Azure than any other platform, according to a new Evans Data survey.

The survey costs money to actually view, of course, so all we can report to you are the highlights from a news release (and even it requires registration). It states that 36 percent of developers actively targeting a cloud used Windows Azure. The next most popular platform was Google Storage, with 29 percent, and Amazon Web Services closely followed at 29 percent.

"Microsoft was very aggressive with its introduction of Azure to the development community a few years ago and that has paid off," said Evans Data CEO Janel Garvin. "Additionally, the large established MSDN community and the fact that Visual Studio is still the most used development environment are huge assets to Microsoft in getting developers to adopt the Azure platform," she said. "However, cloud platform use is still very much fragmented with lots of players laying claim to small slivers of share. It will take more time before a clear landscape of major cloud vendors shakes out."

For those willing to pony up the money, the survey's table of contents indicates a section of the survey is devoted to "big data and database technology," including types of databases being used, best tool suite for big data and more.

One strange thing I found in the news release was that 27 percent of cloud coders who develop in a cloud service end up deploying their apps to another service. Slightly more than 50 percent deployed their apps to that same service in which they developed. I would've expected that percentage to be higher.

Evans Data said the Cloud Development Survey is conducted twice per year, and more than 400 developers responded.

Why do you think Windows Azure is the most popular platform? Why on earth would 27 percent of developers use one service for their actual development and then deploy their apps to a different service? Share your thoughts by commenting here or dropping me a line.